Teacher supply problems easing

Teacher supply problems appear to have eased, a PA News survey showed today, with well over half of all local education authorities in England and Wales saying they were not experiencing a shortage.

Eighty-nine English LEAs said the situation was under control though 48 said they were still having difficulties finding and keeping staff as schools closed for the half term holiday.

None of the 17 Welsh councils polled said they had shortages but unions warned the Government could not afford to be complacent as it was down to the efforts of head teachers that no school has been forced on to a four-day week.

The Press Association contacted all 151 English and 22 Welsh LEAs for the survey in the week leading up to half term.

The results contrasted with an earlier PA News poll published at the beginning of September which showed that, of 127 English LEAs that responded, 62 reported no shortages while 58 said they were a problem.

However, this time a significant minority said they were relying on supply teachers and those on temporary contracts to ensure that every class had a body in front of it.

Meanwhile, many councils said it remained hard to find suitably qualified people for subjects such as maths and modern languages.

In Wales, the familiar short supply of Welsh language speakers continued to cause trouble.

None of the LEAs polled - including those who were experiencing a shortage - said they expected schools to have to make timetable cuts or four-day weeks.

The survey also showed the number of vacant posts was slightly down, at 2,796 compared with 2,862 at the beginning of last month.

That was significantly down on the official April vacancy rate of 4,690 and the estimates thrown up by other surveys in 2001, which have gone as high as 10,000.

Many councils stressed that their information could be incomplete as individual schools are responsible for their own recruitment, although just two of the 139 who took part said they did not know if they had a shortage or not.

Graham Lane, Labour education chairman of the Local Government Association, said the PA poll tallied with what councils had been telling his organisation, that the situation was not as bad as some have claimed.

"Some people have been trying to talk it up as a crisis but there's not been a four-day week anywhere, for example."

He called for school standards minister Stephen Timms to join a committee of councillors, union representatives and members of the General Teaching Council to plot a recruitment and retention strategy for the medium term.

LEAs and schools had scoured the world for teachers, and persuaded others at home to rejoin the profession, averting a crisis, he said.

"We are not sure we can repeat this unless we do something now to prepare for next year."

Mr Lane urged the Department for Education and Skills to expand the graduate teacher training programme, on which people can learn "on the job" in schools.

He said people made redundant from companies like Marconi in recent weeks had been asking how they could re-train as teachers.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "It is a tribute to the way schools and local authorities have worked so hard over the summer and at the beginning of term, yet there are still 2000-plus vacancies, without provision for children.

"The efforts made include recruiting abroad, convincing people to come back into teaching when they didn't really want to.

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